Alice Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
by sirius-remus-rosalie
Summary: Femharry girlharry fem!harry girl!harry Reading the books. 1st book Dumbldore, snape, tonks, sirus, remus, Mrs Weasly, Mr weasley, ron, hermione, Malfoy, fred, george, McGonagall, ginny, Moody
1. introduction

**(a/n) Well this is my first story so go easy on me! There's going to be no romance sorry but 1. I can't write romance 2. I make it sound really soppy! I own nothing for all you leagle-eagles wanting to sue me**

There was a flash of brght light and suddenly 16 people dropped from the cealing and landed on the floor.

"Why are we here?" Alice Potter asked.

"Look there's a note on the table over there." Hermione said.

The room they were in was quite large and it was filled with sofa's and arm-chairs. It had a table in the middle of it and on the table there was a note and 7 books. Dumbldore picked up the note and read it.

"The books on the table contain the past and future. In the future we win the war but a lot of the deaths in the war were not needed and left a lot of you feeling depressed and lonley. This room is simler to the room of requirements. Through the door over there there is a hallway and a kichen, dining room and bedrooms are all thorough there. While you are here time in the outside world will stop so don't worry about school or work. T.R.L."

There was gaspes about the room.

"Well" dumbldore said " It looks as though we are going to read the books. Who wants to read first?"

"I will." Hermione volentered " Alice Potter and the Philosophers Stone..."

**(a/n) So I need to know if I should bother continuing with this story or not so please review! I want a lest 2 reveiws before I continue with this story. Thanks! The next chapter will be much longer promise!**


	2. The girl who lived

**(a/n) So I've decided to update earleyr than promised.**

**I don't own anything.**

* * *

"Alice Potter and the Phiosopher's stone." Hermione read.

**Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.**

"Boring!" The twins said.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved with anything strange or mysterous, because they just didin't hold with such nonsense.**

"Boring!" The twins said again.

**Mr Dursley was the director of a firm named Grunnings, which made drills.**

"Bor..."

"Shut up!" Yelled Moody.

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, **

"Attractive!" Scofed Ginny

"Very!" Agreed Hermione.

**although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours.**

"Not changed much then" Snape muttered.

**The Dursleys had a small**

"Small?" Laughed Alice.

**son named Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anwhere. The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs potter was Mrs Dursleys sister but they hadn't met for severel years; in fact Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.**

"Yeah and they were proud of it." Growled Sirius

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small daughter but they had never ever seen her. This girl was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didin't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"A child like what?" Most of the room shouted.

**When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, **

"Why would he pick out his most boring tie?" Ron asked.

"Bceause he's a boring person" Alice repiled

**and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"If any of you did that..." Mrs Weasley said to her children.

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.**

**"Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house.**

"He encourges it?" Sheriked Mrs Weasley.

**He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive. **

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar - a cat reading a map. **

"Minnie!" Sirius, the twins and Alice shouted.

"Don't call me that" McGonnagol glared at them.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen - then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. **

"Wow!" Alice whispered to Sirius " He got the Minnie glare and lived!

Sirius laughed loudly which caused most people in the room to look at him strangely.

**As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive - no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.**

"Minnie can." The twins said in unison.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"What a one-track mind!" Ginny said.

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. **

"Thats not strange!" Ron said.

"It is to muggles." Hermione replied

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes - the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos **

"We're not weirdos!" Sirius said

"You do know your talking to a book?" Alice asked.

Sirius being the grown-up and mature adult he is stuck his tounge out at her.

**standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt - these people were obviously collecting for something... yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"What a productive day!" Remus snorted

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs **

The twins gasped.

**and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.**

"The world makes sense again!" They cried.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard-"**

**"- yes, their daughter, Alice-"**  
Most people looke sad.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead. **

**"**Yay!" The twins yelled.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking... no, he was being stupid.**

Alice snorted "Finaly he admits it!"

Sirius, Remus and all the kids in the room laughed loudley and even Dumbldore chuckled a bit.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. **

"Yes it is your the only one left." Dumbledore

**He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a daughter called Alice. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his neice was called Alice. **

"He didn't even know your name?" asked an upset Mrs Weasley.

**He'd never even seen the girl. It might have been Anna. Or Annie. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her - if he'd had a sister like that... **

"A sister like what?" Growled Snape, Sirius and Remus.

**but all the same, those people in cloaks...**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**"Sorry,"**

"He knows the word?" The twins gasped.

**he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

"Does anyone else think that sounds like Professer Flitwick?"

Mumbles of agreemet were heard throughout the room.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

The twins started fake sobbing.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

"That won't get Minne to move" Sirius laughed

Alice laughed with him it was so rare he laughed.

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. Was this normal cat behavior?**

"It's normal Minne behavior!" The Twins Yelled

**Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**  
**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!").**

"Charming." Ginny said her voice dripping with sacasim.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

**"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

**"Well, Ted,"**

"Thats my dad!" laughed Tonks

**said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early - it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...**

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

**"No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."**

**"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

**"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her crowd."**

"So we're a crowd now, are we? Moody asked looking deadly

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their daughter - she'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't she?"**

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's her name again? Annet, isn't it?"**

**"Alice. Nasty, common name, if you ask me**."

**"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did... if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on - he yawned and turned over - it couldn't affect them...**

**How very wrong he was.**

A lot of people groaned.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**  
**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was **

"Albus Dumbledore" All the kids and Sirius shouted.

**Albus Dumbledore.**

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

"Oh I did" He chuckled " I just didin't care."

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness.**

"I want one!" The twins shouted

**Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Bad mentel image!" Alice whispered to Sirius.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

**"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

**"Oh yes, I've celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

**"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**  
**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

"Nope." Said a distraught Alice

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

**"A what?"**

**"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"You and you lemon drops!" McGonnagol said

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone-"**

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

**"I know you haven't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."**

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"Only beause you too noble to use them, sir" said Hermione.

**"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them."**

Hermione blushed.

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

"Too much infomation Professer!" Said Ginny

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead."**

Alice looked close to tears. Sirius held her tight.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**"Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus..."**

"I didin't know you cared so much Professer." Alice said.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know... I know... " he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's daughter, Alice. But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little girl. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Alice Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."**

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**"It's - it's true ?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little girl? It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Alice survive?"**

**"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Alice to her aunt and uncle. They're the only family she has left now."**

**"You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here ?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Alice Potter come and live here!"**

"Thank you for trying professor."

"Your welcome dear."

**"It's the best place for her," said Dumbledore firmly. "Her aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to her when she's older. I've written them a letter."**

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand her! She'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Alice Potter day in the future -**

"It's not is it?" asked a worried Alice.

"No its not child." answered Dumbledore

**there will be books written about Alice - every child in our world will know her name!"**

**"Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any girl's head. Famous before she can walk and talk! Famous for something she won't even remember! Can you see how much better off she'll be, growing up away from all that until she's ready to take it?"**

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course. But how is the girl getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Alice underneath it.**

**"Hagrid's bringing her."**

**"You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust hagrid with my life" Alice said.

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

Now it was Alice's turn to blush

"**I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got her, sir."**

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir - house was almost destroyed, but I got her out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby girl, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over her forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

**"Is that where - ?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "She'll have that scar forever."**

"**Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.**

"Really sir?" asked Ron.

"Yes Mr weasly I do."

**Well - give her here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Alice in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I - could I say good-bye to her, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"I take offence to that!"

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Alice off ter live with Muggles-"**

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"Never a good singh when that happens..." Said Remus.

"**Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Alice," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

"You left her on a doorstep?" screamed Mrs Weasley.

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Alice Potter rolled over inside her blankets without waking up.**

"Aww" Cooed the women in the room.

**One small hand closed on the letter beside her and she slept on, not knowing she was special, not knowing she was famous, not knowing she would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that she would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by her cousin Dudley... she couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Alice Potter - the Girl who lived!"**

"Thats the end of the chapter." Hermione said "Who wants to read next?"

"I will" said Remus "The Vanishing Glass..."

* * *

**(a/n) Reveiw!**


	3. The vanishing glass

**(a/n) hey! Back again! I don't own anthing!**

"I will" Remus said "The Vanishing Glass..."

"Oh are you going to do magic?" Sirius asked.

"Listen and you will find out." Alice replied.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their neice on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. **

"Boring" The twins whispered to each other. Moody glared at them.

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another child lived in the house, too.**

**Yet Alice Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Her Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

"Lovely way to wake up." Ginny said sarcasm lacing her words.

**Alice woke with a start. Her aunt rapped on the door again.**

**"Up!" she screeched. Alice heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. She rolled onto her back and tried to remember the dream she had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. She had a funny feeling she'd had the same dream before.**

"It wasn't a dream cup." Remus said

"I know that now" Alice grumbled

**Her aunt was back outside the door.**

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

**"Nearly," said Alice**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday." **

**Alice groaned.**

**"What did you say?" her aunt snapped through the door.**

"She said nothing!" growled Sirius.

**"Nothing, nothing..."**

**Dudley's birthday - how could she have forgotten? Alice got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. She found a pair under her bed and, after pulling a spider **

Ron shivered.

**off one of them, put them on. Alice was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where she slept.**

"What?" came the outraged crys from the room.

Alice buried her face in her godfathers chest.

Mr and Mrs Weasley along with McGonnagol were shouting at Dumbledore, Tonks, Ginny and Hermione were crying, Snape looked furious, Ron, Fred and George were making a list of things they could do to the Dursleys and Malfoy looked shocked. Eventually Moody seemed to have had enough.

"Can we please finish these blasted books insted of crying about somthing that happened 4 bloody years ago!" he bellowed.

Everyone was shocked into silence. Moody made a gesture for Remus to continue.

**When she was dressed she went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. **

Mr Weasley looked ready to ask about these muggle items.

"If you make a list I will tell you about them" Hermione said to him.

He got a scrap of paper and a quill and started jotting down everything.

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Alice, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punching bag was Alice, but he couldn't often catch her. Alice didn't look it, but she was very fast.**

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Alice had always been small and skinny for her age.**

"Nah James was the same up until 5th year." Sirius said.

Alice smiled. It wasen't often someone told her about her parents unless it was about how she had her mothers eyes and fathers hair.

**She looked even smaller and skinnier than she really was because all she had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than she was. **

"They didin't even get you girls clothes?" asked an outraged Ginny.

**Alice had a thin face, knobbly knees, jet-black hair, and bright green eyes. She wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched her on the nose. **

The atmotsphere became tense.

**The only thing Alice liked about her own appearance was a very thin scar on her forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

"You liked it?" Hermione asked.

"I didn't know what it ment back them." she shrugged

**She had had it as long as she could remember, and the first question she could ever remember asking her Aunt Petunia was how she had gotten it.**  
**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

**Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"But if you don't ask questions then how can you learn?" Hermione asked

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Alice was turning over the bacon.**

**"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"Friendly!" snorted Ron

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Alice needed a haircut. Alice must have had more haircuts than the rest of the girls in her class put together, but it made no difference, her hair simply grew that way - all over the place.**

"Just like James " Remus smiled.  
**Alice was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Alice often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**  
With Lilys wit." Sirius added

**Alice put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"Thirty-six and he's complaining! Even I don't get that much!" Malfoy cried.

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Alice, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down her bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

"Would he atcually do that?" asked Mrs Weasley.

"Yes" Alice said grimly "Yes he would."**  
****Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right"**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty... thirty..."**

"Merlin he can't even count!" Sirius said laughing.  
**  
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.  
****"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

**"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's** hair.  
"Why is he encourging him?" Mrs Weasley asked to no one in praticular.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Alice and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

Mr Weasley was writing down more muggle thing's on his parchment.

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

"**Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take her." She jerked her head in Alice's direction.**

"SHE has a name." Sirius said.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Alice's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Alice was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Alice hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made her look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"**Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Alice as though she'd planned this. Alice knew she ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when she reminded himself it would be a whole year before she had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**  
**Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the girl."**

"The feeling is mutual." Alice snarled.  
**  
The Dursleys often spoke about Alice like this, as though she wasn't there - or rather, as though she was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"**

**"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Alice put in hopefully (she'd be able to watch what she wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

The twins scribbled something about a lemon on their list.

"**And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

**"I won't blow up the house," said Alice, but they weren't listening.**

"Blow it up, blow it up, blow it up!" Sirius, Ron and the twins chanted.

"**I suppose we could take her to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave her in the car..."**

"That's child abuse!" Hemione shouted.**  
"That car's new, she's not sitting in it alone..."**

"Oh yes worry about the car not my goddaughter, your neice."Sirius muttered.

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying - it had been years since he'd really cried - but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"Brat" Ginny snarked.

**"Dinky Duddydums,**

Everyone burst out laughing.

**don't cry, Mummy won't let her spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

**"I... don't... want... her... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "She always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Alice a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

**Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"Of course he did." said Tonks

**Half an hour later, Alice, who couldn't believe her luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in her life. Her aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with her, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Alice aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Alice's, "I'm warning you now, girl - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Alice, "honestly..."**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe her. No one ever did.**  
**The problem was, strange things often happened around Alice and it was just no good telling the Dursleys she didn't make them happen.**

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Alice coming back from the barbers looking as though she hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut her hair so short she was almost bald except for her bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Alice, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where she was already laughed at for her baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, she had gotten up to find her hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

"GO POTTER HAIR." Sirius shouted.

**She had been given a week in her cupboard for this, even though she had tried to explain that she couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force her into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls). **

"Eww!" Hermione and Ginny said together.

**The harder she tried to pull it over her head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Alice. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to her great relief, Alice wasn't punished.**

"Thank merlin!" Sirius and Remus muttered.

**On the other hand, she'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing her as usual when, as much to Alice's surprise as anyone else's, there she was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Alice's headmistress telling them Alice had been climbing school buildings. But all she'd tried to do (as she shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors.**

"I think I flew..." Alice offered.

**Alice supposed that the wind must have caught her in mid-jump.**

"We need to teach you how to lie!" The twins said.

"I was eight!" Alice snapped.

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, her cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Alice, the council, Alice, the bank, and Alice were just a few of his favorite subjects. **

"He seems to enjoy talking about you ali!" Hermione joked trying to lighten to mood.

It worked.

**This morning, it was motorcycles.**

"Whats wrong with motercycles?" Sirius asked.

**"... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

**"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Alice, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"That was very silly pup." Sirius said.

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Alice, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**"I know they don't," said Alice. "It was only a dream."**

**But she wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than her asking questions, it was her talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think she might get dangerous ideas**.

Mr Weasly added cartoons on his ever-growing list.

It** was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Alice what she wanted before they could hurry her away, they bought her a cheap lemon ice pop. It wasn't bad, either, Alice thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

"Lilly's wit" Remus commented.

**Alice had the best morning she'd had in a long time. She was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Alice was allowed to finish the first.**

**Alice felt, afterward, that she should have known it was all too good to last.**

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**Alice moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. She wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least she got to visit the rest of the house.**

"You compare your life to a snake?" drawled Malfoy.

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Alice's.**

**It winked.**

**Alice stared. Then she looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. She looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

"Okay..." said Ron  
**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Alice a look that said quite plainly:**

"**I get that all the time."**

**"I know," Alice murmured through the glass, though she wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Alice asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

**"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Alice read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"**  
Alice stiffined.

"It's okay pup we don't care." Sirius and Remus reasurred her.

"Thanks." Alice smiled at them

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Alice made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Alice in the ribs.**

"Hey! Don't hurt my cub!" Remus snapped at the book.

**Caught by surprise, Alice fell hard on the concrete floor. **

Lots of people in the room winced.

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

"What happened?" Ron asked

"Listen and you will find out" said an annoyed Alice.**  
**

**Alice sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. **

"That's some very powerfull magic Miss Potter" Dumbledore said.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past her, Alice could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."**

"Well what do you know? A nice snake!" Ron said in suprise.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Alice had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. **

"Wimps" scoffed Ginny

**But worst of all, for Alice at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Alice was talking to it, weren't you, Alice?"**

"Shut up you rat!" Screamed Sirius at the book.

"You're talking to the book again" smirked Alice

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Alice. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

**Alice lay in her dark cupboard much later, wishing she had a watch. She didn't know what time it was and she couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, she couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

"Yes!" cheered the twins "We'll make a prankster out of you yet!"

**She'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as she could remember, ever since she'd been a baby and her parents had died in that car crash. She couldn't remember being in the car when her parents had died. Sometimes, when she strained her memory during long hours in her cupboard, she came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on her forehead.**

"You remember that?" gasped Hermione.

Alice nodded.

**This, she supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. She couldn't remember her parents at all. Her aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course she was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**  
**When she had been younger, Alice had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take her away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were her only family.**

"Sorry pup...that's my fault..." Sirius sighed looking depressed.

**Yet sometimes she thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know her. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to her once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Alice furiously if she knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at her once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken her hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Alice tried to get a closer look.**

"Apperating Potter." Snape said in a board voice.

"I know that now." She snapped.

**At school, Alice had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Alice Potter in her baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"There." Remus said "That's the end of the chapter. Who wants to read next?"

"I will" said Snape " Might as well get my turn over with. The letters from no one..."

**(a/n) So someone mentioned to me about Alice getting married at the end of the 7th book. I couldn't decide who to pick so I put a poll on my profile. And yes I know that some people on the poll are dead but I'm not making that bit a part of the 7th book. It's going to be it's own book and will appear after they read all the books. Kind of like a result from saving people and not as many people dieing. Just wanted to clear that up. Please vote+reveiw.**


	4. The letters from no one

**(A/N) hey! I would really love it if you guys check out my poll on my profile. read and review please!**

* * *

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Alice her longest-ever punishment. By the time she was allowed out of her cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"Brat." Ginny muttered under her breath.

**Alice was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader. The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Alice Hunting.**

**This was why Alice spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where she could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came she would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in her life, she wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Alice, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

"What's so funny about that?" Tonks asked.

"I've got no clue." Alice repiled.

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Alice. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

**"No, thanks," said Alice. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick." Then she ran, before Dudley could work out what she'd said.**

"I'm still waiting for that!" she said as laughs sounded throughout the room.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Alice at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Alice watch television and gave her a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"Eww" said Ron, ever the food critic.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters.**

There was laughter at the discription. Alice thought she even saw Snape crack a smile.

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"How is that good training for later life?" Mrs Weasley said.

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Alice didn't trust herself to speak. She thought two of her ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Alice went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. She went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.**

**"What's this?" she asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if she dared to ask a question.**

**"Your new school uniform," she said.**

**Alice looked in the bowl again.**

**"Oh," she said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

"Sarcasim dosen't work on her Potter" Snape said.

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of my old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

**Alice seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue.**

"So you do have commen sense." Snape sneered but it lacked the usual venem in his words.

**She sat down at the table and tried not to think about how she was going to look on her first day at Stonewall High - like she was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Alice's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

The twins gasped.

**"Make Alice get it."**

**"Get the mail, Alice."**

**"Make Dudley get it."**

**"Poke her with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

**Alice dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and - a letter for Alice.**

**Alice picked it up and stared at it, her heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in her whole life, had written to her. Who would? She had no friends, no other relatives - she didn't belong to the library, so she'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

**Miss. A. Potter**

**The Cupboard under the Stairs**

**4 Privet Drive**

**Little Whinging**

**Surrey**

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.**

**Turning the envelope over, her hand trembling, Alice saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.**

"HOGWARTS LETTER" The kids and Sirius yelled.

**"Hurry up, girl!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

The twins wrote something down that Alice coulden't see on their list.

**Alice went back to the kitchen, still staring at her letter. She handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk..."**

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Alice's got something!"**

**Alice was on the point of unfolding her letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of her hand by Uncle Vernon.**

**"That's mine!" said Alice, trying to snatch it back.**

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.**

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!"**

"Drama Queens!" Tonks muttered

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Alice and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

**"I want to read it," said Alice furiously, "as it's mine."**

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

**Alice didn't move.**

**"I WANT MY LETTER!" she shouted.**

"Lily's temper" Remus snickered.  
**  
"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.**

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Alice and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Alice and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Alice won, so Dudley, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where she sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

**"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"Oh yes, we love to do that in our free time!" Said Tonks.

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want-"**

**Alice could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything..."**

**"But-"**

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took her in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

Dumbledore looked very angry.

"That is a very dangerous thing to do" he said.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Alice in her cupboard.**

"He fit?" laughed Tonks

**"Only his head" replied Alice.**  
**  
"Where's my letter?" said Alice, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?"**

**"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."**

"It wasen't a mistake, it had her cupboard on it!" said Ginny

**"It was not a mistake," said Alice angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."**

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

**"Er - yes, Alice - about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking... you're really getting a bit big for it... we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.**

**"Why?" said Alice.**

"Why were you questioning it?" said Snape.

**Alice shrugged. "I wasen't used to him being nice to me.**

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped her uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom.**

"Dudley had two bedrooms and you had to sleep in a cupboard?" Mr weasley asked.

Alice nodded.

**It only took Alice one trip upstairs to move everything she owned from the cupboard to this room. **

'I'm going to spoil her rotten after this .' Sirius thought.

**She sat down on the bed and stared around her. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it.**

Mr Weasley was writing this all down on his list.

**Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, I don't want her in there... I need that room... make her get out..."**

"Hahahahaha!" Ginny laughed.

**Alice sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday she'd have given anything to be up here. Today she'd rather be back in her cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

"He really is a horrible boy!" Professor McGonagol sniffed.

**Alice was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing she'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Alice, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Miss. A. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive - '"**

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Alice right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Alice had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Alice's letter clutched in his hand.**

**"Go to your cupboard - I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Alice. "Dudley - go - just go."**

**Alice walked round and round her new room. Someone knew she had moved out of her cupboard and they seemed to know she hadn't received her first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. She had a plan.**

"Oh no." Sirius smirked.

"What" Alice wondered.

"When James said that things never went well." Remus explained.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Alice turned it off quickly and dressed silently. She mustn't wake the Dursleys. She stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.**

**She was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. Her heart hammered as she crept across the dark hall toward the front door -**

**"AAAAARRRGH!"**

**Alice leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something alive!**

"What is it?" Ron asked excitedly.

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to her horror Alice realized that the big, squashy something had been her uncle's face.**

At this everyone burst out laughing.

"Wow!" Ginny got out through fits of laughter.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Alice didn't do exactly what she'd been trying to do. He shouted at Alice for about half an hour and then told her to go and make a cup of tea. Alice shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time she got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Alice could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

**"I want - " she began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before her eyes.**

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up."**

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"And thank god for that!" Tonks laughed.**  
****On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Alice. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"What?" asked nearly everone in the room.

"Aunt Petunia has a strange fasination with that song." Alice explained.  
**  
On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Alice found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Alice in amazement.**

"Oh I don't know Ginny, Neville, proberly Fudge, maybe Voledermort." Alice laughed.

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today-"**

"We have no such limits." Sirius smirked.  
**  
Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Alice leapt into the air trying to catch one -**

"Seeker in training." Hermione smirked.

**"Out! OUT!"**

**Uncle Vernon seized Alice around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

**He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while.**

**"Shake 'em off... shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

"He's mad" Ron said loudly.  
**  
They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

"Welcome to Alice's world." Ginny snarked.

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering...**

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day.**

"Yum." said Ron with a raised eyebrow.

**They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Miss. A. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."**

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

**Miss. A. Potter**

**Room 17**

**Railview Hotel**

**Cokeworth**

**Alice made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked her hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

**"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared.**

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled.**

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television."**

**Monday. This reminded Alice of something. If it was Monday - and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television - then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Alice's eleventh birthday. Of course, her birthdays were never exactly fun - last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks. Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.**

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

"That's dangerous!" Mrs Weasley cried.

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas.**

"That's not rations!" Mrs Weasley shouted.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up.**

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Alice privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer her up at all.**

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Alice was left to find the softest bit of floor she could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

"That's horrible" Tonks said.  
**  
The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Alice couldn't sleep. She shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, her stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Alice she'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. She lay and watched her birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

**Five minutes to go. Alice heard something creak outside. She hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although she might be warmer if it did.**

"That's really sad." Ginny frowned.

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that she'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

**One minute to go and she'd be eleven. Thirty seconds... twenty... ten... nine - maybe she'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him**

"Do it, do it, do it!" Ginny, Sirius and the twins cried.

**- three... two... one...**

**BOOM.**

**The whole shack shivered and Alice sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"There that's the end of the chapter." Snape said.

"I'll read next" said professor Dumbledore. " The Keeper of the Keys...

* * *

**(A/N) okay so im putting a picture of Alice on my proflie page. This is just how I see this charchter for this story. You can see her any way you like. Its a picture of how I see her in 5th year. The reason shes not wearing glasses is because she found a spell 4th year that made her be able to see perfectly without them.**


	5. The Keeper of the Keys

**"**I'll read next." said professor Dumbledore " The keeper of the keys."

**BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.**

**"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"He brought a gun?" asked a shocked Mrs Weasley.

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"**

**There was a pause. Then -**

**SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."**

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

**"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

**"An' here's Alice!" said the giant.**

**Alice looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes."**

"That was the first time someone told me that." Alice smiled.

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

**"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

"Hagrid woulden't care." Ginny scoffed.

"**Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

**"Anyway - Alice," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Alice opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Alice written on it in green icing.**

"Aww that was really nice of Hagrid." Hermione said.

**Alice looked up at the giant. She meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to her mouth, and what she said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"Alice! Mind your manners!" Mrs Weasley scolded.

**The giant chuckled.**

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Alice's whole arm.**

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"He shoulden't be drinking if there's children in the room!" Mrs Weasley cried.

"Oh come on Molly! I think we have all seen Hagrid drunk!" laughed Sirius.

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Alice felt the warmth wash over her as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

"Hagrid woulden't give him anything anyway!" Ginny laughed.

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

**"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

**He passed the sausages to Alice, who was so hungry she had never tasted anything so wonderful, but she still couldn't take her eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, she said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

**"Er - no," said Alice.**

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

"He's not going to like that" Tonks said.

**"Sorry," Alice said quickly.**

"**Sorry ?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"**

**"All what?" asked Alice.**

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this girl - this girl! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"**

"That made me sound stupid hagrid." muttered alice.

"Now who's talking to the book" Sirius smirked.

**Alice thought this was going a bit far. She had been to school, after all, and her marks weren't bad.**

**"I know some things," she said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."**

"He's not talking about that." sang Ginny.

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

**"What world?"**

"He really won't like that!" laughed Tonks.

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Alice.**

**"But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

**"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

**"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know... " Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Alice with a bewildered stare.**

**"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.**

"And that remark made me sound like an animal." Alice muttered.

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the girl anything!"**

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

**"You never told her? Never told her what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer her? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from her all these years?"**

**"Kept what from me?" said Alice eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

**"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Alice - yer a witch."**

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

**"I'm a what?" gasped Alice.**

**"A witch, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

**Alice stretched out her hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Miss. A. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. She pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Miss. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall,**

**Deputy Headmistress**

**Questions exploded inside Alice's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"Really? Out of all the questions you could have asked you said 'what does it mean, they await my owl?' I worry about you sometimes Alice." Ron snickered.

"It was was the last thing I read." Alice mumbled embarrassed.

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Alice could read upside down:**

"Really? I can't even read his writing rightside up!" Tonks said.

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Given Alice her letter.**

**Taking her to buy her things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.**

**Hagrid**

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

**Alice realized her mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"She's not going," he said.**

"Yeah like that will stop her." Ginny said.

Hagrid grunted.

"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop her," he said.

"A what?" said Alice, interested.

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

**"We swore when we took her in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of her! Witch indeed!"**

**"You knew ?" said Alice. "You knew I'm a - a witch?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

"Probably has." muttered Snape. 

"**Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as - as - abnormal - and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

"She's lovely, she is." Ron said.

**Alice had gone very white. As soon as she found her voice she said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Alice Potter not knowin' her own story when every kid in our world knows her name!"**

**"But why? What happened?" Alice asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Alice, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - but someone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows-"**

**"Who?"**

**"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

**"Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Alice, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went... bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

**"Could you write it down?" Alice suggested.**

"Aww, you are really sweet Alice" Mrs Weasley cooed.

Alice looked down blushing.

**"Nah - can't spell it. All right - Voldemort."**

"Wow, you got Hagrid to say the name!" Fred said.

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Alice. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

"They woulden't." Sirius confirmed "For one thing Lily was a muggle-born."

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' - an'-"**

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway...**

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Alice. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

**Something very painful was going on in Alice's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, she saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than she had ever remembered it before - and she remembered something else, for the first time in her life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

**Hagrid was watching her sadly.**

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."**

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Alice jumped; she had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

**"Now, you listen here, girl," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured**

"Oh, and I'm sure you tried." Snape snarled. He was starting to realise that Alice was not James Potter and did not have a pampered upbringing that he had inmagined.

**- and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end-"**

"How dare he say that to you!" Sirius shouted.

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley - I'm warning you - one more word..."**

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Alice, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

**"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

**"Good question, Alice. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?**

**"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Alice. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

**Hagrid looked at Alice with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Alice, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A witch? Her? How could she possibly be? She'd spent her life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if she was really a witch, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock her in her cupboard?**

"It dosen't work like that pup." Sirius laughed.

**If she'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick her around like a football?**

**"Hagrid," she said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a witch."**

**To her surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

**"Not a witch, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Alice looked into the fire. Now she came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made her aunt and uncle furious with her had happened when she, Alice, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, she had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, she'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit her, hadn't she got her revenge, without even realizing she was doing it? Hadn't she set a boa constrictor on him?**

**Alice looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at her.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Alice Potter, not a witch - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

"Yeah" she muttered "I know."

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

**"Haven't I told you she's not going?" he hissed. "She's going to Stonewall High and she'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and she needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and-"**

**"If she wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop her," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's daughter goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. Her name's been down ever since she was born. She's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and she won't know herself. She'll be with youngsters of her own sort, fer a change, an' she'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-"**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

"Oh, he's done it now!" said Tonks.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER - " he thundered, " - INSULT - ALBUS - DUMBLEDORE - IN - FRONT - OF - ME!"**

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley - there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Alice saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

"Go Hagrid!" Most of the room shouted.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

**He cast a sideways look at Alice under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."**

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Alice.**

**"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

**"Why were you expelled?"**

"Alice, that was very rude!" Mrs Weasley said.

"Mrs Weasley, it was four years ago!" Alice reminded her.

"**It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Alice.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' doormice in one o' the pockets."**

"Why would he have..." Hermione started but then decided she didin't want to know the answer.

"Who want's to read the next chapter?" Dumbledore asked.

"I will" Fred said " Diagon Ally.

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**(A/N) Please reveiw and check out the poll on my profile. I've added two more options on it so please vote!**


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